Paredrodesmus australis, Mesibov, Robert, 2003

Mesibov, Robert, 2003, Two new and unusual genera of millipedes (Diplopoda: Polydesmida) from Tasmania, Australia, Zootaxa 368, pp. 1-32 : 13-14

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.157087

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6275166

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/4932B16D-9278-FFCC-C848-78129D39FC34

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Paredrodesmus australis
status

sp. nov.

Paredrodesmus australis View in CoL n. sp.

Figs. 6 View FIGURE 6 , 8 View FIGURE 8 , map Fig. 12 View FIGURE 12 B

Holotype: Male , Coopers Creek, DN507635 (42°46’45”S, 146°23’50”E), 460m, 23.ii.1994, R. Mesibov, QVM 23 View Materials :41168. GoogleMaps

Paratypes: Male, details as for holotype, AM KS86290 ; male, Kallista Creek , DN625651 (42°45’56”S, 146°32’30”E), 300m, 21.ix.2002, R. Mesibov, QVM 23 View Materials GoogleMaps :25464.

Other material examined: 3 males. See Appendix for details.

Diagnosis: Distinguished from other Paredrodesmus by the unique form of the gonopod.

Description: As for the genus. Males 10–11 mm long, 0.8–0.9 mm in maximum vertical diameter. In alcohol, well­coloured adults are pale with reddish mottling on distal anntennomeres and metazonites, notably around ozopores. Antennal bases separated by ca. 1.25 times a base diameter, antennomere 6 about one and a quarter times the width of 5. Legpairs 6 and 7 with a wide gap between opposing coxae, legpair 5 with a narrower gap; flexed gonopods reach to the gap between legpairs 5 and 6. Genital opening on leg 2 coxa on a prominent mesal projection ( Fig. 6 View FIGURE 6 A). Gonopod aperture with rear margin raised in the middle. Telopodites ( Fig. 8 View FIGURE 8 ) closely pressed together but not fused, the contact surfaces flat, the outer surfaces rounded. Telopodite base broad with a few short and long setae; distal portion of telopodite arising medially, curving caudad at about half its length and expanding to a broad tip with slightly rounded distal surface, the very small, bluntly pointed solenomerite arising in the middle of this surface. The prostatic groove runs along the mesal surface of the telopodite before abruptly turning laterad across the broad top of the telopodite to the solenomerite. A comb of ca. 50 variably long, peg­like structures arises from a line circling the edge of the telopodite tip and extending proximad along the anteromesal surface. The comb can be divided into two sections according to peg orientation: directed proximad and laterad on the posterior edge of the telopodite tip, laterad elsewhere.

Distribution and habitat: In well­rotted litter, humus and richly organic soil over ca. 600 km 2 in south central Tasmania from 80 m to ca. 600 m, in wet eucalypt forest and Nothofagus rainforest ( Fig. 12 View FIGURE 12 B). Co­occurs with P. b i c a l c a r. This is an uncommon species whose known range is likely to increase with further sampling.

Etymology: Latin australis , southern, adjective. This species is restricted to southern Tasmania.

AM

Australian Museum

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